Facebook Messenger is testing new emoji reactions

Facebook is exploring new ways to make its chat app more engaging for users.

The company recently began trialing Reactions in Messenger, according to TechCrunch, giving some users access to a set of emojis — including the love emoji, the angry emoji, the "thumbs up" icon, and the new "thumbs down" icon — they can use to react to messages. Facebook hasn't yet mentioned the possibility of a broader rollout date.

Facebook is likely hoping that Reactions prove as popular on Messenger as they have on the site's News Feed. Since they were introduced roughly a year ago, Reactions have been sent more than 300 billion times, TechCrunch reported. And while Messenger's audience is vast — more than 1 billion monthly active users globally — its users are not the most engaged: Messenger users in the US spend less than 1 hour in the app per month, according to Verto. For context, smaller chat app Kik boasts more than five hours of user engagement each month.

If the tests are successful, Reactions could positively impact businesses using Messenger as a tool for reaching consumers.

Reactions could boost B2C engagement on the messaging app. The use of stickers and emojis are an accepted method of interaction on many chat apps, including iMessage and LINE. Letting users react to conversations, promotions, or customer service interactions in fun and colorful ways could improve the likelihood of engagement.

Reactions on Messenger would provide richer user data. Text requires multiple points of context to make sense, while Reactions, like the thumbs down or angry face, do not. This means that brands, businesses, and Facebook can receive more information, with less confounds, faster. Similarly, Reactions to keywords in conversations could increase accuracy for ad targeting on Messenger, which is being trialed on the service in some countries.

Reactions could help reduce the amount of typing for users. This could increase the likelihood that users reply in the first place. Typing is not only time consuming, but it also lends itself to spelling errors and command errors, which can add to a poor user experience. Quick-reply Buttons, Persistent Menus, and Webview are just some of the ways Messenger, and other chat apps, are trying to improve the user experience for B2C and chatbot interactions. Reactions fits right in there with them.

The top four messaging apps — Facebook's Messenger, WhatsApp, WeChat, and Viber — now claim nearly 3 billion monthly active users combined, narrowly outnumbering the combined active users on the world's four largest social networks, including Facebook.

These numbers have caught the attention of a wide range of businesses, publishers among them. News industry leaders including the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and the BBC are establishing a presence on a number of chat apps in an effort to be out front and build an audience on the latest platforms where people are consuming content. These early adopters are experimenting to learn which chat apps work for their audience and how they can leverage chat for the distribution of digital content, including articles, images, surveys, and video.

BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on messaging apps for publishers that looks at the appeal of these apps and how they're becoming a dominant platform for media consumption. It compares the leading chat platforms, including WhatsApp, WeChat, Facebook's Messenger, and Viber, and what features publishers should know about when thinking about how they might leverage these properties. It also looks at strategies for content distribution across chat apps and finally spotlights some of the challenges that publishers may encounter as they begin to dip their toes into content distribution via messaging apps.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

There are dozens of messaging platforms, each with distinct user demographics and features, and these differences will determine which apps a publisher should try and what type of content is most fitting.

Publishers like The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and the BBC are experimenting to learn which chat apps work for their audience and how they can leverage chat for the distribution of digital content, including articles, images, surveys, and video.

Chat apps are especially appealing to publishers because they allow these brands to tap into users' "dark social" activity. Dark social traffic stems from people sharing content privately through IM programs, messaging apps, and email, among other means.

Because chat apps were once primarily used for peer-to-peer communications, publishers have an opportunity to reach audiences on these platforms through a more conversational exchange.

In full, the report:

Breaks down the pros and cons of each major messaging app.

Explains the different ways publishers can distribute content on messaging apps.

Highlights the differences between native and linked content.

Looks at the potential barriers that could limit chat apps' utility for publishers.

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